Kurgis & Co's Guide to CoW Factions

[Maha Moggalana]

Here are the dwarf unit stat guide I just made . It's also have Kurgis's dwarf campaign guide for 1.44


Kurgis , hope you don't mind

[Ichon]

Hochland

Hochland starts with 3 relatively well developed regions in the NW central region of the Empire and 1 castle which is not well developed. There are several nearby rebel and Beastmen regions that offer both a threat and opportunity.

This guide is for playing on VH-VH but should be able to be adopted for other difficulties quite easily. Version 1.4.4 with no other submods.

Difficulty- Normal for experienced player, maybe Hard if only due to relatively weak unique units in roster but the victory conditions are relatively easy so if measured by that then its easy campaign.

I don't use assassins as I think that makes things too easy so keep that in mind as I won't mention it again.

Overview of units-

Standard Empire units are useful deep into the campaign but I will highlight the most useful units for Hochland in my opinion.


1. Swordsmen- Versatile, deadly when used well, and CHEAP, can stand up quite well against even higher tier enemies if upgraded and having some XP.
2. Halberdiers- Cheap, hold the line well but need support, absolutely murder weak enemy units but can have their line broken by more powerful Chaos units.
3. Free Company archers- relatively low cost though they are not the cheapest, can be thrown into the line when arrows run out or just to stem the tide. Can sometimes get very high kill ratios as they are about as good archers as Empire archers but with the higher melee abilities can actually make a difference when thrown into melee after expending all their arrows. Especially with upgrades they are a lighter cheaper version of high elves. Only criticism is no stakes but most Empire armies can get by with only 1 row of stakes in front of cannons.
4. Pistoliers- Versatile and cheap for their usefulness, can weaken enemy knights though don't count on them to stop heavy cavalry on their own, quite powerful charge for basically a skirmisher unit. very fast- use them to draw off enemy cavalry so your cavalry can fight 2 or 3 on 1.
5. Spies- yes... they deserve a spot, not only keep track of enemy movements and open gates, but protect from enemy spies, assassins, and can sometimes cause rebellion in enemy settlements.

Hochland Marksmen are the foremost unique unit but unfortunately are not worth the cost in most battles. Very low kill rate for their high cost, and LoS requirements mean that occasionally the Marksmen are useful but archers high angle attacks and high rate of fire tend to be much more useful. Hochland Marksmen do have long range but seem quite inaccurate even at high levels of XP. Several battles in campaign as I test them they fired at least 3 volleys before scoring a single kill on the flank of an advancing Chaos Knights unit which was as long as the Chaos Knights needed to more than come into melee. The Marksmen can fight decently in melee but the expense to use them this way is wasteful. Traveling with many in your army is unlikely to be a good idea. 1-2 is ok to move to the flanks or rear of enemy army once it has engaged your line as a steady barrage on high armor units does work over time but generally the kill rate is too low to justify even situations like that and it is far more effective to have another unit which can help kill enemy general like Pistoliers as that breaks morale much more quickly. Thunderers from Beder work better though the starting high XP Marksmen should last you quite awhile. AI does like to focus on missile units if it can reach them so using them as bait can work but archers/crossbow work just as well and are more effective for the cost.

Drakwald Patrol the most useful unique unit. Not as powerful as some other units but when upgraded and given free reign on an enemies flank or rear can chop down all but the most powerful melee units. Also the relatively low cost and abundance where most cities can produce them means getting alot of them is relatively easy.

Knight Encarmine are incredibly useful. Their stats especially on charge are misleading. I've found them able to kill most enemy units though very heavy enemy units can resist their charge even when hit in the back. Their melee skills are amongst the best Hochland will get as well though be careful not to leave them in melee too long as they do not have the durability of some other heavy armor units.

Panther Knights are fast and one of the best charging cavalries in the Empire. Can absolutely exterminate low tier Chaos units but lacks some of the Encarmine's melee skills so best use to charge, retreat, charge and chase routers

Warpriest of Sigmar is a special unit that you only get 1 of and might come early or later in your campaign but is very useful. I advise to train them up on zombies or something similar before employing vs tougher enemies since you only get 1. If you fight against some of the special scripted armies which are full of elite units they are almost essential if you want to win with style(IE non catastrophic losses).

Bright Wizard is fun to use but honestly does less damage than a couple high XP mortars and are less durable. Maybe I've used them wrong but average battles they are making nice fireworks but only doing 100-200 kills while mortars average higher kills for less cost and much greater availability. Honestly if I were to rebalance Hochland roster I would make Hochland marksmen much much more powerful, Thunderers a little more powerful, and greatly reduce mortars. That would make setting the mortars to 'fire and forget' a bit less devastating and giving more of a reason to make an effort to use the handgun type units other than bait or a single company to help break morale of enemy.

Artillery- Hochland gets access to many cannon and these can be quite useful but don't overdo it. Chaos armies tend to move fairly quickly and only in a few situations will cannon have long enough opportunities to use their very long range well. Later in the campaign cannon probably are worth inclusion simply for the chance to take out Chaos champions and other dangerous vermin from long range. Mortars are really much more useful but it depends on situation as occasionally cannons make more sense(bridge, siege defense though using both is ideal). The Volley Guns and rockets are fun to use and I found rockets to be handy in siege defense while not as reliable as mortars but worth trying out.

Greatswords- The recruitable generals can be useful for a morale boost or to lead armies in a pinch as for some time it can be difficult to get enough generals but I find them lacking in battle vs the top tiers of most other factions. The best use is charging in on a flank attack or helping stabilize the center of the line with their bonus to morale. They are cut down by many of the better Chaos units and take much longer than the family member cavalry to gain XP and extra HPs for the general making them dangerous contenders to rely on leading armies. With good XP and upgrades they can take down Black Orcs and similar units but anything more and they will be the ones getting cut down. Since Black Orcs are a couple levels below the top melee troops... don't count on them to turn the tide in melee. Drakwald or Halberdiers are more useful in melee and with larger numbers more durable as well.

Mercenaries- any mercenary captains that offer service, buy them! The generals are worth the price alone. Ogres are also quite useful but don't expect them to win on their own. Nuln pikemen are also useful but the best mercenaries available are the special troops with the captains and Ogres.



The other special mention for Hochland are the dwarves available in Breder, Thunderers are better than the Hochland Marksmen at shooting while being weaker in melee but anytime Marksmen get into melee something has gone wrong anyway. Quarrellers are the crossbowmen and are quite useful for taking out well armored Chaos vermin and seem more accurate then the Hochland Marksmen while the warriors and axes are handy to keep for wall defense. The difficulty retraining means that only 2 units of each should be recruited and then by rotating retraining should be able to reach high levels of XP where shield wall and the armourer upgrades make them quite deadly. Perhaps even 3-4 of these guys can be rotating by the time Chaos Undivided begins but shouldn't not have more than that or send them far from Breder except in early campaign.

Turn 1-20 general guide coming update soon!

AAR up to turn 40 in progress- http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post10443061


Turns 1-5

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Turn 1

Gather most of your army and lay siege somewhere- personally I think the Beastmen camp to the SW is the best place as all your units can reach it and there are 2 more nearby settlements that can be captured. There are other options however but getting settlements quickly is imperative to allow the income to build up Hochland's core settlements.

The first 20 turns I set all taxes to low (the growth rate difference can mean anywhere form 2,000-10,000 difference if kept on high growth low taxes the first 20 turns) and focus mostly on income and growth buildings. Yes you will scrape by for money but Council missions and taking settlements should allow you to keep a building program going for long enough to build everywhere for the first 15 turns. After that as buildings get more expensive and you face growing retraining costs you can either stop development of some cities but hold them or give them to other Empire factions so they can develop them.

Turn 2

Most of the time whichever city you laid siege to will have sallied out so you will have full movement on turn 2 to march to the next city and lay siege again. Try and keep your losses down the early battles as you will need your starting army to last as long as possible as money for recruits is tight with a good building program. Recruiting the 2 mercenaries available in Hochland might be useful at this point and you should have the cash. A company of Panther Knights should be available this turn or next and I recommend recruiting them as despite their high price they are worth the cost.

I keep my army together the first turn to limit casualties though I could probably have split it and still won an enemy sally siege but with much higher losses. On turn 2 I split my army hoping the Beastmen and rebels will sally out on the way to turn 3.

Build merchants as you get money and send them south to warpstones, silver mines, and textiles first- as you build more merchants send them into the hills east of the Inland Sea where there are gromil mines. It takes several turns of travel to reach however so the closer resources make more sense for the first wave of merchants but as you build 2nd wave send the first wave onward as the 2nd arrives to take their places. Don't build many spies yet as you can better use your money for the first 5 turns.

Turn 3

After splitting my army after the first siege sally only 1 of the towns under siege sallied out, you can continue with 1 army which will lower casualties if you aren't confident of splitting your armies as the battles are more difficult but soon the nearest towns will all be captured and you will either have to split your armies or slow down in conquests. I might have split my armies a bit too early here but without spies laying siege to the 3rd town allows it to be captured on turn 3 so you will have already doubled your core cities by turn 3 if you do it that way.

When I elected to split my armies partly it was to use the Hochland Marksmen hard to reduce their expensive upkeep. I am not sure if Empire rebels sally more rarely than Beastmen but it seemed that way to me. Perhaps the Beastmen garrisons tend to be more powerful but either way for my AAR play thru when I split my armies here the 2nd garrison did not sally so I might have been able to win the first battle with fewer casualties.

By this point there should have been some pop up messages asking if you are ready to help defend someone's borders- answer yes as you will be drawn into a scripted siege where you are given a free army. The battles in the scripted sieges tend to be among the hardest you will face early in the game but if you win the free army they provide will be quite useful.

Turn 4

There are more choices now that the cluster of nearest rebel settlements have been captured. Without many spies it can be difficult to know what is going on- I use the original spy to scout the perimeter and check out trade resources to know where to send the first merchants. At this point having more spies might be useful and with 3 cities and not many new units recruited you should have some spare cash. The very first mission I had was to capture one of those 3 settlements so that gave 500 for a new spy or merchant right there. I chose to go east and capture the nearest Beastman settlement and originally I was thinking to perhaps go south to the Elven ruins but the garrison there is quite strong so I decided I could better use my army in other ways but it is a nice settlement so depending on your plans it might be worth capturing early. The garrison is mostly Orcs with a few tough units but mainly I avoided it because of the depleted state of my army at this point meant a battle would mean several turns of inaction as the high casualties would require retraining. If you move a bit slower and keep your army together and buy units instead of spies and merchants you can probably capture it without such losses but I am not sure its that valuable when you can barely afford to upgrade your starting settlements.

Turn 5

This turn should see the first scripted battle helping Kislev defend against a Chaos horde. This battle might be difficult... your army contains only a single unit of cavalry while the enemy has both Hellcannnons and sorcerers which can strike from long range plus some very strong melee units vs Hochland's lineup. This is the first battle I noticed the weakness of the Hochland Marksmen who were unable to score many kills against fast moving targets before being forced to engage in melee.

Take out the Hellcannons or the sorcerers quick- The Hellcannons should be easier to isolate but be careful with your knights, with only a single unit most of them need to last the full battle.

The fighting became desperate in this battle and I lost my general unfortunately but he was only a greatsword so not as huge of a loss as losing a cavalry family member. Only the high XP the army starts with allowed a win here. With lower XP units I am sure I would have lost. The knights and the Empire archers are the most useful units in this battle though I could have probably used my spearmen better. Your allied army fights well and in fact the Bear cavalry probably saved the battle more than any other unit. I suspect this battle would be very hard to win if the AI gets its general or Bear cavalry killed early. Keeping the knights alive is also key... even if they are only around 10 once the enemy generals are killed a charge to the rear of enemy units might be the only way to rout them. In this battle the knights first eliminated the hellcannon, then they aided the allied army in killing some Chaos knights and 1 enemy general, then focused on taking out the sorcerers and lost majority of the unit in that process. I think I had 6 alive after that and used them for rear charges which eventually wore them completely away.

After winning or losing this battle either way take the remnants back to Hergig and retrain them or merge them with remnants from your other armies. I prefer retraining at this point even if it is less efficient cost wise to preserve the XP which is difficult to gain for infantry units.

Choices where to go after this are wide open- the best idea is to focus on a single Chaos faction that you think you might be able to eliminate before the Chaos Storm. (though apparently completely eliminating leads to scripted horde respawn though in my campaign I did not see this) If not completely eliminate reduce to a single city- ideally one you have already taken and razed to the ground.

The most obvious choices are Beastmen or Sylvania. I elected the Beastmen since securing the western lands seemed easier and once secure there are few threats compared to Sylvania which borders Orcs and Goblins. Night Elves might also be eliminated or some other faction but any other choices than the first 2 make things more complicated when you have limited time to build up before the Chaos Storm.

Army in turns 1-5 is whatever you started with and can get, I played the first 10 turns 3 different times for this guide and once was offered mercenary captain already on turn 4 but the rest of the time armies were almost identical.

After turn 5 you can have a wider choice depending on your build order. Hergig as the most advanced city might be made to produce more military buildings while leaving taxes higher earlier as alternate to what I choose. I suggest definitely focus all other cities on growth but Hergig starts large enough it can easily reach largest size even if not growth focused in the earlier turns. Halberdiers, archers, cavalry, and ogres might be the best choices early. Leave cannons and swordsmen until more advanced facilities are built. One of the paths I took in playthru was to ignore the lesser cities and just go for the largest. This can work but I found the cost in casualties, marching time, and retraining time made this a poor overall strategy though capturing Marienburg might be worthwhile if you capture some Beastmen cities on the way there and with reinforcements on the way back.

Just 2 other notes-

Take any targets of opportunity like wandering Shaman or Beastmen generals... even if it doesn't directly benefit Hochland it weakens the enemy and might help other factions. In fact I think due to repeated targeting of Beastmen generals is the main reason I was able to eliminate them by turn 14.

BTW- this guide is based on playing without assassins. I think assassins are a bit of exploit in CoW. I don't mind using them in some other mods but defeating a Champion of Chaos with an assassins blade seems rather unrealistic and also robs Chaos armies of some of their strongest fighters which are more fun to overcome in battle.

[Ichon]

Border Princes

So this faction might seem boring at first and while they do not have very unique units their position and neutrality make them compelling.

Basically you have 3 ways you might try and play them- stay neutral and take what rebel settlements you can and continue on the wars with forces of Chaos and the Orcs.

You could join the Conclave of Light offered after the 2nd turn and pledge to join the Dwarves, Empire, and High Elves... its not a bad way to go but due to position not very satisfying either.

My favorite option is to use the neutrality and starting wars to expand carefully and then turn on the Empire. Going north into Sylvania is relatively easy especially early before Sylvania has expanded much. Build up power taking the rebel settlements in the area- especially Mordheim and then take out the Empire factions 1 by 1. You'll need about 20 turns to get ready and also hope that the Empire builds some dogs of war camps you can capture as ogres come in very useful as heavy infantry. I actually did this half way... took on the Empire starting turn 18 and had about 20 turns of constant battles eliminating 3 factions then when Chaos Storm started settled with the Conclave of Light and started fighting Chaos. No reason not to join with Chaos either but it is fun to try out the Border Princes army against Chaos as they proved the most challenging to fight.

Basic points:

You'll start with decent amount of cash but quickly go into debt. I would recommend disbanding about half the spearmen and archers. The spearmen are basically fodder while the archers are surprisingly useful. Better than both Empire archers and the mercenary archers. It is a long journey to the east to capture poor Orc settlements and battling the Dwarves and Empire is not recommended so early. North to the closest Goblins on Black Lake is the most direct route to Sylvania which makes a perfect staging area to take on the Empire as well as capture the necessary rebel settlements to be able to conquer the Empire or/and fight Chaos.

The main advantage of the Border Princes roster is that you have access to decent charging cavalry at rather low prices and high availability while the archers can hold up in melee better than most other missile units in CoW. Dzurhina make decent heavy infantry with upgrades but take some time to get going with armor upgrades and xp.

There are fewer scripted battles with Border Princes than most of the other CoW factions I have played. The other important note is to make sure and use priests as you'll need to convert large parts of majority of the regions you capture.

[3MKA]

Dark Elves 1.4.4

The dark elves are a raider faction just like their 40k counterparts and I am surprised by how well this was translated on to M2TW. As a feared and hated raider faction the DE have:

- Limited economy. Aside from the slavery based economy, they have no way to upgrade their economy in settlements other than the occassional jewellry shop, they can’t even grow crops or any buildings to upgrade population growth. You also have no merchants.

You are forced to take and sack settlements or take settlements with facilities that you were unable to build yourself. (i.e. mines)

- All Buildings Available. You’re a raider pirate faction and have no time to wait till your settlement grows to send in more troops. All barracks, ranges, stables, etc. re available whether in a huge city or a village.

- Expedition Force. Just like their High elven counterparts they are limited to troop recruitment only in coastal regions, cities that can build ports. In addition to that, if its winter you’re not getting any new recruits.

Note: In taking inland regions, do keep building at least first level barracks since it lets you keep a free upkeep garrisson in inland settlements. You can also retrain in inland settlements sometimes but not recruit.

Note 2: I’m not sure but its’s possible that if you lose your last settlement you become a horde just like the high elves [needs clarification]

- Extremely limited alliances. Not as bad as Sylvania but you still have no diplomats and only 1 scripted alliance in the entire game which also makes you go to war with 1 other faction.

- Only 1 starting faction you are at war with. You are the immediate problem of only 1 faction, the High elves. Everyone else is busy with everyone else, a perfect situation for backstabbing and raiding.

- Dreaded armies. You have one good unit that causes fear, use this along with a dreaded general to break morale, win quickly and minimize your losses.

Other features of the faction include:

- Poor siege. You should rely on spies or sallies to get into a city. Nothing you have can feasibly break through even a large town’s wooden wall.

- Repeater crossbows. Most of your ranged units use these. They have limited range (wherein they can be outranged by almost every one else’s ranged units) but high rate of fire. Probably higher than even your standard archer.



Units

Melee

DE Warrior – It’s you’re standard sword and board unit, better than most other sword and board. Can go into shield wall. Can garrison.
DE Spear – Same as above but with a spear but can’t shieldwall. Can garrison
Black Ark Corsair - It’s like a DE warrior with 2 swords and no shield. Has higher damage but lower defenses. They can do well on the front but prefferrably used to flank or be a 2nd line troop.
Har Ganeth Executioners – It’s your usual 2handed weapon elite melee infantry. As with the others of its kind it’s basically charge infantry.
Black Guard of Naggarond – Elite spearwall infantry with halberd type weapons. Inspires troops. Has a high charge bonus so you can use it similar to the executioners then put them back into spearwall once they’re engaged.

Witch Elves of Khaine – 2 hitpoints, causes fear using an activated ability, moves very fast. It’s THE DE unit. With a high dread general it’s possible to cause an early rout with these. It can either turn the tide and/or reduce a lot of casualties on your side. Try to have at least one in every army.

Ranged

DE Crossbows – You’re standard ranged unit. Uses a repeater crossbow (see above). dwarven crossbows, maybe even orc bows will outrange you’re units. But get them into range and they will tear the enemy a new one until ammo runs out.
Shades – Same as the above except it can hide anywhere, has no formation and seems to be more accurate.

Cavalry

Dark Riders – Ranged Cavalry unit of the Dark Elves. Uses the repeater crossbow but not as dakka as the infanry version. It’s pretty fast and can serve to charge into the rear of an engaged unit once it runs out of ammo. Also useful for going after routing units.
Cold One Knights – Dark Elves’ lance cavalry. Causes fear in other cavalry units. It’s heavier and slightly slower than horse riding cavalry. It feels very sluggish to use. It’s the only charge and melee cavalry you’ve got though and it does petty well versus other cav units.

Siege

Reaper Bolt Thrower- The only siege weapon the dark elves get, absolutely useless for breaching settlements. You could waste it’s ammo on the wooden gates and you still won’t get in. What it’s useful for is cutting a swathe through the enemy’s ranks. Each shot fires several bolts from each bolt thrower and each can go through several units at a time. It takes some time to reload though. It’s also pretty accurate. In a way it’s similar to a ribault but with better range.

Special Units (One per game)

Sorceresses – Very powerful ranged unit and probably the longest ranged unit you will get. Attacks with a powerful shadow magic blast thingy which can chew up whole formations of troops. Comes with a general unit with a DE warrior bodyguard, Vorhan. She casts a debuff which lowers morale. I haven’t tried accepting her as a family member yet so I’m not sure if she can be given a wife.

Assassins – Haven’t tried them much. They’re a small sized troop. They can hide anywhere and throws daggers before charging. Comes with a general with a Corsair bodyguard, Shadowblade. He has a special ability that increaeses fighting ability of your units.

Starting Area

The dark elves start out in the Dark Elves Camp in the larger chaos wastes area up north and in a camp in the sarl’s land, a few territories away from Nordland and Kislev areas. You start out with two armies at the start with 2 Cold One generals and 2 infantry generals. The 2 Cold One generals both have special abilities that I think will buff your army temporarily so mke good use of them. You also have an assasin at the start regardless of your answer to the assasin script. You also get a free brochure on Marienburg.

You’re overall objective aside from gaining x terrtitories is to hold onto both the starting areas of the High Elves, and Nuln. Getting, Nuln is difficult since you can only recruit in coastal areas. The closest coastal city to it is Marienburg which will quickly become a major secondary objective for you as it is for everyone else.

Suggested Starting Moves (playing on H/M)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From, the dark elves encampment you should put together a large army to take the settlement to the east which by the time you reach it will be held by Slaanesh. I wouldn’t worry about going to war with them early since you also get a scripted allaince later on. Try to get into a fight early with the dwarfs and take their settlements since they are a large source of income early on. They can build mines while you can’t. You’ll probably encounter Nurgle followers as well as you go east, take them on when you feel you are able. And from there expand further east until perhaps the Norscan High Elven Encampment.

While from Sarl’s land I would try to take both the larger sarl’s land encampment then the Norscan island to the west and from there perhaps try to take on the rebel coastal settlements to the north west. Eventually taking the eleven camp on the Sea of Claws. Don’t worry too much about the Kislevite and Nordland territories near you as they are probably occupied with a Tzeentchian invasion. Also you can’t use too many inland settlements anyway.

As much as possible try not to start a war with the empire territories just yet wait until the storm of Chaos. It’s okay to start a war with other chaos factions since you end up neutral with them all by the time the storm hits.

Because gold and recruitment is really going to be a problem, you’ll probably spend some turns doing nothing. Or perhaps shifting troops around by boat. Try not to sack any settlement early on since it’s not going to give you much. If running low on gold try to prioritize build up on the Sarl’s land DE settlement or some of the settlements on the Sea of Claws since these areas will see a lot of action during the Storm of Chaos.

Your early game should focus on securing coastal settlements, and maybe kicking the High elves from theirs and getting ready for the Storm of Chaos, not to defend from it but to take advantage of it.

Scripted Events

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Alliance with Slaanesh. It’s kind of a no brainer, you either go into an alliance with them and get 20,000 gold or you are neutral/at war with them and get nothing. The alliance will still be offered even if you were previously at war with them. It also gets you into a war with Nurgle but since they are an obstacle in your path towards the HE norscan settlement, it's not a problem.

If you are at war with them and you managed to kick them out of the settlement near the dark elves camp, you will not ever encounter them ever. So in terms of getting a challenging fight you won’t even get that if you reject the alliance, you only lose money.

HE Invasion. An army near Sarl’s land will spring up and make a bee-line for the DE camp in Sarl’s Land. Some of these armies have high elf mages in them. The best way to deal with them is to assasinate the generals since they will probably go wandering directionless. (note: I’m not sure if it bugged out the script but the red circle stopped appearing when I assasinated the first general) I kept one army with a general just to play with.

Storm of Chaos

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Unlike every other faction to the south of you, this event isn’t a crisis but a huge opportunity. Chaos largely ignores you and goes straight for the imperial settlements on a conquering spree. Nordland, Ostland and Middenheim are their primary targets. They will however take settlements then promptly lose them due to rebellion and leaving a really small garrisson there. Now you the DE player can help this process along by eliminating generals on either side and sowing spies in every settlement. Once a city goes rebel, you take it. On eliminating generals it really depends on how you want the tide of chaos to flow you want it to go farther, take out Empire generals, if you want to prune it back (or cause one settlement to go rebel so you can take it…) take out a Chaos general.
Feel free to take on Nordland, Ostland and Middenheim while you’re at it. Nordland especially, you will need those coastal settlements. Now is also a great opportunity to take Marienburg. As much as possible try not to go to war with chaos since they make a great pawn.

The storm of chaos will eventually wither and die to the metal box of the Empire’s might. Basically, Reikland kicks their butts, and becomes you’re immediate problem so there’s something of a limit to your opportunistic sacking spree. You can probably extend Chaos’s hold some more by going to war with Reikland, acting as a psuedo ally. At this point you just have to help chaos along enough while trying to make your way to Nuln, to take it and hold it for the x number of turns to win.

Please note that this is entirely subjective and in my game, the Nurgle and Slaaneshi sides of the storm of chaos stood around doing nothing. A different game may have the SOC wiping most of the empire off the map.

Some notes on Battle Tactics

1. The witches are one of the best weapons in the DE arsenal and I cannot stress their importance to a DE army. Either chanting at the rear of a line or engaged with the enemy, they will still be causing fear once their chant ability is turned on. It really reduces casualties for you once the enemy routs early.

2. Repeater crossbows are more effective at taking down other melee units and not other ranged units. Because of their rate of fire they seem to be very good for skirmishing but keep them out of range of enemy fire. Also note that you should have a direct line of fire with their target since it maximizes the damage dealt by the crossbows.

You should try to get rid of the enemy ranged units before you engage with your own. Most of the time, the battle AI will move their own ranged units up front so you can actually take them out early with cavalry. This prevents a war of attrition with their ranged units and you can now skirmish their melee troops safely.

Most of the time though I usually end up just flanking the enemy battle line with them or placing them on an elevated portion of the terrain, just as long as they have a direct line of fire to the enemy. If they can cause sudden drops in troop numbers from their continuous fire they can cause the enemy to rout especially if you have witches in your army and a dread general.

[Timorfeys]

UNIC UNITS and receiving conditions

EMPIRE

Bright Wizards

Came with 1% probability every turn if Altdorf in Empire hands
Сontents: General Tirus Gorman with dismounted Reiksguard knights as bodyguard, Bright Wissards unit
Retraining in Kurfurst palace. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.



Empire steam tank

Came with 1% probability every turn if Nuln in Empire hands
Contents: General with bodyguards Engineers with long barrel guns. Platoon of tanks.
Retraining in Artillery factory with University building only in the capital. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.

Engineers with repeater guns

Came with 1% probability every turn if Nuln in Empire hands
Contents: General with bodyguards Engineers with long barrel guns. Repeater gun engineers unit.
Retraining in University. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.

Witchhunters

Came with 1% probability every turn if Grand Theogonist Residense in Empire hands.
Contents: General Yohan van Hal with Heavy Free Company bodyguards. Witch hunters unit. Two units of ordinary free company, two units of free company archers.
Retraining in the Cathedral. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Sigmar warpriest

Came with 1% probability every turn if Grand Theogonist Residense in Empire hands.
Contents: General Luthor Huss with Coldflame bodyguards, Warpriest of Sigmar unit
Retraining in the Cathedral. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Ulric Warpriest

Came with 1% probability every turn if Grand Middenhaim in Empire hands.
Contents: General with Teutogen bodyguards, Ulric Warpriests unit.
Retraining in the Cathedral. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


CHAOS

Nurgl Mages (only for nurgl player)

Came with 1% probability every turn.
Contents: General with Nurgl champions bodyguards, Nurgl Mages unit.
Retraining in the Chaos Temple. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Chaos Sorcerers

Came with 1% probability every turn if player unite chaos.
Contents: General with chaos warriors bodyguards, Sorcerers unit.
Retraining in the Chaos Temple. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.

Tzeench Mages (only for Tzeench player)

Came with 1% probability every turn if Citadel of changes is in a players hand.
Contents: Tzeench Mages on discs.
Retraining in the Chaos Temple

Minotaurs

Came with 100% probability if player unite Chaos and take Wolfenburg.
Contents: Minotaurs unit, Bestigor unit, two units of Gors, two of Ungors.
Retraining Minotaurs in Chaos Temple

to be cont/
KISLEV

Ice Mages

Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General Vladimir Stormbringer with Kreml Guard bodyguard, Ice Mages unit.
Retraining in the Palace. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Chekist

Came at the beginning of campain with 100% probability
Contents: General Vladimir Pashenko - Bodyguards Chekist with blunt weapon, Chekist with long guns.
Retraining in Huge stables + leather workshop + alchemist lab. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.
If you lost Vladimir the election of a new Head of CheKa happens with 15% probability each turn. Also you could hire one unit of Chekist after election event if you lost them too.



Droyashki

Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General Sasha Kazhetan with Grifon Legion bodyguards, Droyashki unit.
Retraining in the Guard Barraks. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.

HIGH ELVES

Archmages

Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General with Swordmasters of Hoeth bodyguard, Archmages unit.
Retraining in Philosophy tower II (only not during winter storms)With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Dark Elves

Assassins

Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General Shadowblade with corsairs bodyguard, Assassins unit.
Retraining in the Tower of Assassins (only not during winter storms)With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Чародейки
Witches

Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General with DE warriors bodyguard, Witches unit
Retraining in Warlords Hall(only not during winter storms)With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.





SYLVANIA


Knights of Blood Dragons order

Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General Valah Harcon with Blood Dragon bodyguard, Blood Dragon Knights unit, Dismounted BD unit.
Retrain only in Blood Keep province, Guard Barraks. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.


Necrarch


Came with 1% probability every turn
Contents: General with Graveguard bodyguard, Necrarch unit.
Retrain in Guard barracks+Graveyard IV With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.

Black Grail Knights


Came with 1% probability every turn if Drakenhoff in a hands of player.
If you dont have free room for them in the keep on a moment of their arrival - you lost them.
Contents: Black Grail unit
Retrain in Guard barracks

GREENSKIN

Shamans


Came with 1% probability every turn.
Contents: General with Savage Boar Boyz, Shamans tothem
Retrain in Big Gork n Mork temple. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.






DWARVES

Doom Anvil

Came with 1% probability every turn.
Contents: General Kregg with hammerers bodyguard, Doom Anvil
Retrain in top level armorsmith. Only in Karaks and Chaos Dwarves strongholds. With lost of a general this feature become unavailable.

Greatbeards


Came with 1% probability every turn if player holds Zhyfbar (could came to Zhyfbar twice)
Or 100% if Karaz a Karak is under sige (enemy must hold the siege at least one turn)
Or 100% if Karak Eight Reaks is under sige (enemy must hold the siege at least one turn)
IF YOU dont have free slot for them - unit will be lost and you dont get anything.
Contents: Greatbeard unit
Retrain in Last Bastion
No matter how you get them you could have only one unit of them at once.

CHEERS!

[Maha Moggalana]

Correct me if you find any mistake

[IGdood]

NICE THANKS!

[CptFastbreak]

I've been playing a lot of Chaos Dwarfs lately, so I thought I'd make a guide on them, since they have a bit of a tricky start. Here goes, for the glory of Hashut.

Chaos Dwarfs

The Chaos Dwarfs haven't been getting a lot of love. They have no intro text, the UI and voices are largely the regular Dwarf ones. All the buildings and many units are recycled from Dwarfs, Greenskins, and Chaos. No Bull Centaurs either, sadly. But if you love explosions, and mass devastation (and honestly, who doesn’t), they are great fun to play.

Difficulty: Hard in the beginning, easy later.

Strengths: Good mix of cheap greenskin slaves and elite units. Laugh maniacally as your fearsome Artillery and Blunderbusses wreak havoc among your hapless enemy. Chuckle as Empire and Chaos tear each other apart during the Chaos Undivided event.

Weaknesses: Weak starting position. No heavy cavalry. Cheap troops are undisciplined, and elite troops are very expensive. No friends or allies at the start. No merchants or spies. Artillery have slow rate of fire and are inaccurate.

Starting Position: You start with only two fortresses: Uzkulak, northwest of Karak Vlag, and Gorgoth's Tower, far southeast of the map in the dark lands. Both are not exceedingly well developed and hardly bring any money in. You'll also get three leaders in the north and two in the south, along with an assortment of troops.

Unit Types: (* = free upkeep, unit size in brackets)

Infantry:
Goblins *. (126) Same unit the Orcs get: 120 goblin slaves, weak, but cheap. There's not much reason to buy them unless you're desperate to get some numbers on the battle field and have no Hobgoblin units to recruit.
Goblin Spears *. (126) Also the same the Orc player gets. You have better reason to recruit these than with normal goblins though, since you can't get Hobgoblin spears.
Hobgoblins*. (100) A slightly smaller unit size, but better stats and morale than goblins, and almost as cheap. I would buy these as cheap cannon fodder rather than regular goblins, especially since your level one Chaos Barracks gives you a 3 Hobbo pool compared to 1 of everything else, so they’re easier to retrain as well.
Orc Boyz*. (75) Regular Orc unit with the same stats. Compared to Hobgoblins, they are slightly more expensive, have the same attack, but twice the defense, so they'll last longer.
Orc Spear Boyz*. (75) Spearorcs. Not much to say - they're only slightly more expensive than gobbos, but with far better stats.
Hobgoblin Archers*. (100) Hobgoblin Archers. Not terrible in close combat, but best used ranged. I like to use them as a last defense against enemies flanking my Artillery too.
Goblin Archers*. (125) They are more expensive than Hobgoblin Archers, but have lower stats. Their advantage is their larger unit size, meaning bigger volleys of arrows, and the ability to skirmish. This is your only infantry unit that can skirmish by the way. They can also hide in long grass, if you can make use of that.
Orc Arrer Boyz. (75) Orc archers. They have the same melee attack as Hobgoblin Archers, but higher ranged attack and higher defense - about the same as the Sneaky Gits. Only worth if you want a strong defense unit as garrison core IMO.
Hobgoblin Sneaky Gits. (100) Slightly stronger than regular Hobgoblins, but a little weaker than Orks. They have the Hide Anywhere ability, which makes them theoretically useful for flanking and attacking an enemy in the back, but personally I have never been able to make it work without them being discovered.
Black Orcs. (63) Your prized Black Orc slaves are great warriors and inspire nearby greenskins. Same as for the Orcs.
Black Orc Destroyers. (63) Less regular attack, but higher charge bonus, these are charge-retreat troops.
Chaos Dwarf Warriors. (62) The high attack value of Dwarf Axemen with an even higher defense than Dwarf Warriors, these guys are great, durable elite warriors. Can’t get armor upgrades though, and don’t form shield walls.
Chaos Dwarf Blunderbuss. (62) This is your true weapon of mass destruction that absolutely must be present in all your stacks. You might look at their stats and notice they have only ranged attack 4, but remember, they do AOE damage to an entire unit. It’s not uncommon to kill half or more of a single HP enemy in one volley.

Cavalry:
Hobgoblin Wolf Riders. (35) Light cavalry. The don’t hold up well in combat, so I mainly use them to hunt down routed units, and make sure they stay routed.
Hobgoblin Wolf Rider Archers. (35) Light cavalry with good ranged attack. One of two units with the ability to skirmish, the other being Goblin Archers.

Artillery:
Hellcannon of Chaos. Needs line of sight. One cannon with a demonic cannonball that does loads of damage, but is inaccurate. If you have it behind your troops, the shot may burn through your lines as well though, so watch out for that.
Earthshaker Cannon. Two mortars that cause enemy troops in range to fall down, breaking their advance. Theoretically, this slows their faster units down so you can get more volleys from the Blunderbuss in, but the low rate of fire and the short duration of the earthquake means that it likely makes little difference. It can disturb a coordinated charge though, and make the enemy filter in a bit slower. It fires in an arc, so no danger for your troops, and theoretically doesn’t need LoS, but I’ve had a few cases where it refused to shoot at units behind a hill.They are also great against walls.
Death Rocket. No line of sight required. Highest range of all your artillery. Four rocket launchers, so you can launch devastatingly effective volleys on horde armies such as Orcs or Night Gobbos.

Mercenaries:
Chaos Ogre. (10) They’re Ogres - what’s there to know.
Chaos Troll. (5) One of the most fearsome units in the game IMO. Insanely high attack, defense, HP, and speed, these are a must have if you can afford them. The only disadvantage is that once you can afford them, you’re probably not going to need them as much any more.
Random mercs. There are probably more, but these are the ones that I got and have experience with.
Mighty Throg's Hobgoblin Despoilers of the Black Lands. Slightly stronger than regular Hobbos, but can’t be garrisoned. Not worth the money IMO.
Golgfag's Mercenary Ogres. (15) Compared to the regular Chaos Ogres you get, these are a little more expensive, and have a bit higher attack and lower defense. Their big advantage is that you don’t need to wait for them to randomly show up to recruit, like with the Chaos Ogres.
Mudat’s Mercenary Half Orc Maniacs. (75) A bit higher defense and lower attack than regular Orcs. Not worth the money either.
Ruglud’s Armored Orcs. (62) The only Crossbow unit you have access to, but these guys can really hold their own in melee as well - they have better stats than Melee Hobbos. Fantastic wall defenders in a siege.
Ogla Khan’s Wolfboyz. (35) They have much higher defense than ordinary Wolf Riders, so they’re more useful in sustained combat.

General Advice
Hellcannons need a Large Manufactory to build or retrain, which is only available at Citadel level. Protect them at all cost. Other artillery and Blunderbusses need a normal Manufactory, which is only available at Fortress level. Guard them well. Chaos Dwarf Warriors need Armorer 2 and Warrior Watchpost; Black Orcs and Black Orc Destroyers only need Armorer 2 and Chaos Barracks, but they refill their pool slowly, so you shouldn’t use these carelessly as well. All other greenskins are expendable. Use them to tie up troops for your heavier units to flank, shoot

Remember that all your generals have Blunderbuss bodyguards, and that general’s bodyguards refill automatically over time as long as the general stays alive. So don’t be afraid to use them on the front lines, especially for the first turns where you have no money to retrain.

Artillery is your great strength, so unless you’re a master at making them work from within a city without trashing your own walls, it’s probably best to meet the enemy in the field, or sally.

I like to have a setup with Blunderbusses in the front, Hobbos behind, Chaos Dwarfs on the flanks, and Artillery and Black Orcs in the back. Try to have at least a Death Rocket and Earthshaker in each offensive stack. If the enemy sets up on a hill and waits for you to attack, you could try to draw them out with skirmishers, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Instead, slowly edge closer until they are in range of your Death Rockets, then blast away. High level Rockets are capable of destroying about 40% of an average enemy stack before running out of ammo. They will charge eventually when they have lost a certain amount of troops, at which time they will walk directly into the fire of your blunderbusses. If you are up against heavily armored enemies, or big guys, focus fire on the weak units to make them rout, while you hunt them down with Wolf Riders. Once the heavy troops are mostly alone, you can crush them with your infantry. If you’re up against very fast units, such as Winged Lancers, or Silverhelms, consider leaving your Blunderbusses in the second line, then as the fast guys are engaged in melee, move them out on the flanks and blast in their flank. The Blunderbusses have a fairly short range at which they start to shoot, but the shots actually travel way beyond that. Use closer units to trigger a shot at an angle that travels through the bulk of the approaching army. Don’t rely on the Fire at Will mode, they will often focus heavily decimated units that are no danger any more if they are close to you.

While you need Armorer 2 to build Chaos Dwarf Warriors and Black Orcs, no armor smith above that does anything at all. Save yourself some money and don’t build them. The Inventors Guild allows you to upgrade your archer units and blunderbusses, but it seems to only affect their melee stat. The weaponsmith upgrades only Chaos Dwarf Warriors.

General advice on buildings, since you’re capturing Dwarf Karaks, most places give great income from mining, so you should build mines as soon as you can afford them. Aside from that, Chaos Barracks and Orcz Range are a must have, so that you can garrison and retrain. After that, go Warrior Watchpost and Armorsmith upgrades, so that you can (re)train warriors, and Manufactory for Blunderbusses. The ideal place for you to cap is a Dwarf fortress, that was held for some time by Greenskins or Chaos, they will have Mines, Watchpost, and Barracks already, maybe even Range and Stables. Remember that the Dwarf smith does nothing for you though, you’ll have to build your Armorsmith from scratch.

If Chaos Undivided hits, you will get an alliance with them. It’s cool because Archaon won’t attack you, yet for me, they had some stack loitering close to my Fortresses, probably hatching some devious scheme. OTOH, it kind of sucks because by this point, they will probably hold Karak Dum in the Chaos Lands, which you need to win, and since you can’t build Diplomats, you can’t break your alliance. If they don’t break it on their own, you can seek out a faction allied to Chaos, but not to you (Beastmen for instance), and attack them, this will also break the alliance. Sometimes you can also attack a place and thereby break the alliance, but I never understood under what conditions it works. Maybe it’s possible to capture Karak Dum before Chaos hits you as well, but if you manage that, you’re a much better player than I am, and probably don’t need to read this guide in the first place.

First Turns
As mentioned above, your starting position isn’t that good. Even though you’re neutral with most evil factions, Warriors of Khorne might prey on you if your northern regions aren’t well defended. Night Goblins will eventually attack you there too, when they think you’re weak. In the south, Orcs may attack you for the lulz, and your treacherous Dwarf brothers would like nothing better than to wipe you off the face of the mountains for good.

You can get an alliance with Khorne and with the Orcs as random events, but it’s not guaranteed to happen, so I wouldn’t count on it. Also, the Orcs may ally with the Night Goblins as well. Those, in turn, hold a lot of the regions you need for victory, so you will have to declare war on them sooner or later, voiding your alliance with the Orcs.

My advice for the first few turns is to build a watchtower at each road in the south and then turtle in Gorgoth’s tower. When Orc stacks enter your region, you can launch a preemptive attack, because they will probably attack you anyway. Build the artillery you’re still missing, especially Death Rockets, maybe a Black Orc in the north. For buildings, I recommend a Chaos Barrack in the South, so you can get free upkeep and eventually replenish your slave troops. In the north, maybe a Mining Network, although it doesn’t make much of a difference.

In the north, gather all your forces except for one general, march on Karak Vlag, and start a war with the Night Goblins. Why you may ask? Several reasons. First, you need their regions eventually. Second, they will attack you sooner or later anyway, and if they haven’t expanded in the North, it is easier to crush them. Third, you absolutely need to capture Karak Kadrin to get you out of the red, and the way is past the gobbo fortresses. And finally, it’s great fun to fight night goblins with Blunderbusses. There’s nothing like the sight of five charging 120 Night Gobbo spears being decimated to 30 each and then rout.

Once you’ve captured their fortresses, leave behind only enough troops to keep the populace from rioting, and move on as fast as you can. You’ll notice that the Gobbos really ran the Dwarf fortresses into the ground, they don’t even have mines and scarcely give any money. You can demolish a few buildings, but it won’t be enough to buy reinforcements, not to mention build anything. Also, check the buildings before you destroy, some Gobbo buildings enable you to train/garrison troops as well. Move to Karak Kadrin as soon as you can, this will save your economy and give you some breathing room.

In the south, you could try to capture Silverspear with your stack, but I wouldn’t recommend it, since you will incur losses and leave Gorgoth’s Tower defenseless against the Orcs. Also, Silverspear needs heavy investments before it is even remotely profitable. Instead, turtle in Gorgoth’s until you have enough money to make a new stack, then send that out to attack the southern Night Goblin holdings, and eventually the Dwarfs.

If you’ve made it to that point, you’ll be filthy rich, Chaos Undivided hit the good factions, and you just have to mop up the rest and wait out your cap times for the victory conditions. Good luck, and may the Bullfather always guide your aim.

[Maltacus]

This is not a guide to any single specific faction but rather to some army compositions centred on blowing things up from afar and winning that way. Eventually I hope to be able to highlight all factions artillery and gunpowder parts.


The Screaming Skull Catapult Army of Sylvania

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Sylvania is the first campaign I was able to play without any crashes (after two tries with the Druchii had failed for that reason) and will always be my favourite faction in CoW. After being disappointed in how the unit stats had been made I decided that the best thing would be to make an army that focused on ranged combat. Sylvania only has the weak crossbowskeletons for missile troops. Booo. But they also have the screaming skull catapult. And that is what this army is all about (of course nobody could guess that after reading the title of this section).

The optimal stack in my experience looks like this:

1 general
4 black knights

5 grave guard halberdiers
5 screaming skull catapults

3 skeleton spearmen (or whatever you have)
2 skeleton crossbowmen (or whatever you have)

The riders start at all on one wing in most cases. The catapults are in the middle guarded by the grave guard, suitably enough. In front of them stand the crossbowskeletons, far enough ahead so that archers targeting them do not hit the grave guard also. Ahead of them stand the three spearskeletons, again at least the same distance ahead. Depending on what you face they will have to spread out, move around or gather together.

The army works in this way: The catapults focus their fire on the enemy centre, seeking to rout the companies by their concentrated fire. It is often best if at least two focus on the same target since they are not so accurate. The skeletons absorb the enemy army and disturb their missile troops so they don’t shoot at the grave guard and catapults. The cavalry meanwhile goes either around or through the enemy wing opposing them and move behind the enemy army, then striving to kill their general. After that their job is to chase the enemies routed by the screaming skulls. Those enemies regain their courage fairly quickly if you do not keep attacking them. If the enemy has elite companies breaking through the skeletons the black knights can attack into their backs but one or two will probably need to stay with the routers to keep them routing.

This is not the strongest army composition but it is quite adaptable and a ridiculously efficient one because you concentrate almost all casualties to the quarter of your army made up of expendable skeletons, zombies and so on. Ranged troops are useful to include since they can be good on their own in hilly terrain and spears can trouble enemy cavalry but anything that does not rout works. Because of the necromancy trait, Sylvanian armies with such a general regenerate a lot of their forces if they win. The black knights will suffer some losses but first, they will usually be the first companies to lose soldiers which means they will also be the ones regenerating most afterwards and second, since they are cavalry, replacements can move to the front quickly from your cities and castles.

This army is ideally suited for destroying empire and greenskin armies and will effortlessly lay waste to nine out of ten of their stacks. It is very easy to maintain in a long campaign since only a select part suffer grave losses (pun intended). If you face a cavalry-heavy enemy army things will be harder and it will probably be wise to move halberdiers from the centre to each wing and split up the knights, leaving one halberdier and the crossbows to guard the catapults. The catapults are not too good in siege attacks but the halberdiers are excellent in confined spaces due to the spear wall/phalanx formation, and black knights are always useful.

Including a scary ghost or two is probably not a bad idea. I did not find it necessary but in some cases that little extra scariness will naturally be decisive. If you have your leader leading the whole thing his bodyguard will be of immense value due to its speed and charge (the only reason the humans are there is because they were legio I-III of Drakenhof and I became attached to using them as Manfreds personal guard; they yawned through most battles guarding the non-cavalry flank without being attacked).



Skull: Booo! No skulls for the skull throne today! Bwahahahahaaa!

The Chaotic Dwarf Siegers

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The chaos dwarfs gained some new stuff when they became a faction of their own in 1.5. This part is based on 1.4.4 and deals with the infantry, hellcannon and blunderbuss units only but I guess they haven’t changed much in later versions. The chaos dwarfs have excellent capabilities when it comes to sieging cities and defeating enemy infantry in the field. Equally important, they can do both things with style (= big explosions and devastation).

To make the most out of it I would recommend something like this:

6 hellcannons (enough to raze walls comfortably)
6 blunderbussers (4 are enough for most situations but reserves are always good)
2 or more fast units, preferably cavalry
1 general
5 of whatever suits you, I would recommend infantry (chaos dwarf infantry is most stylish)

Units causing fear and having good defence abilities are well worth looking for. The same goes for units that can counter well armoured elite enemies.

Both the hellcannon and the blunderbuss are unusual weapons in the sense that they can hit a huge number of enemy soldiers at once. The hellcannon, as described in previous guides, requires line of sight to the target and can not shoot over the head of your soldiers except from elevated positions. It is quite inaccurate but one good hit is enough to kill the most of a tightly packed enemy company. Such a hit also deals a severe blow to their morale. The cannon itself is rather large (1 per company) and the gunners have the normal chaos dwarf armour, making them quite tough for being artillery crewmen.

The blunderbuss is by far the most unique weapon of the chaos dwarfs. It requires line of sight just like a usual musket but instead of one bullet it fires a hail of several small bullets, with the effect of a small canister shot from each dwarf. Each bullet does not deal huge damage but since they are so many, a volley totally massacres lightly armoured troops. Blunderbussers do not need to spread out to be effective, defying the general rule of hand gunners. Because they rely on massed bullets instead of high damage, armour is very effective against them and makes a tremendous difference. A low damage projectile can fail to kill a heavily armoured soldier many times over and not change anything, as compared to for example a lightly armoured soldier with many hit points. The blunderbuss shot spread out a LOT in depth but much less in width. Therefore it is best if you can target enemies in a column rather than a line. Also therefore, raking shots become terribly good (a raking shot is a shot hitting something elongated in the short side rather than the long side, thereby passing through as much of the object as possible – be it either a ship or a formation of troops).

For easily imagined reasons, I have tried this army mostly against the empire. With their low number of melee cavalry and tightly packed troops with generally mediocre morale it is…quite worth the money. An added bonus in 1.4.4 is that the chaos dwarf units (that you get access to when Rykarth appears) can be retrained in the imperial Dogs of War camps. In the field the trick is to catch the enemy infantry between long lines of gunners that shoot them down and cover each other and the artillery. No unit must take the brunt of the enemy attack alone. It is very much recommended to only attack one army at a time unless the reinforcements appear just behind the first enemy army so they march the same way as the first. I always find it easier to position when attacking directly from the north, south, east or west.

My best way to beat imperial infantry armies and everything else that resembles them is to form a V or U with the open end towards the foe and the cannons gathered in the middle. Form long lines of blunderbussers on each side, angled slightly towards each other so they can give covering fire. The V must be open enough to allow the enemy to pass into it and not be attracted to any of the sides to early. The biggest threat apart from cavalry is the imperial missile troops, which they are almost as fond of spamming as they are of infantry. Here is where your fast units will be crucial. They must disturb and harass the enemy while their infantry moves into position and in range. Blunderbussers are outranged by archers and crossbowmen and will be whittled down by the arrows and bolts. It is incredibly annoying when you don’t have any fast troops to stop them. To avoid your cannon shots, the fast units should attack enemy skirmishers from the sides, not charge straight ahead. It is neither necessary nor advisable to actually charge them and get entangled, just keep them running and regrouping to prevent them from shooting. The cannons will do their part to scare the skirmishers as some always hit them sooner or later.

When the enemy infantry comes in range, open fire but do it with care. Now the battle will become a game of shooting down the company closest to your lines. It is a bit like the game Tetris in the way you fend off a continuous approach of evil objects, one at a time, which draw closer and closer. Your infantry has the contradictory task of stopping the enemy infantry and not get in the way of the blunderbuss shots. There is no particularly great way of doing that. I recommend compact, square-like formations to move quickly and take up as little space as possible. Your infantry do not have to deal much damage; just halt the enemies so the blunderbussers have time to destroy them.

In the field, this sort of army is pretty static but still requires every bit as much and intense micromanaging as the most mobile light cavalry force. It is much fun but comparably hard to use in the field. It is thus no coincidence that it’s greatest value lies in sieging cities and of course bridge battles.

Like all square-formed defences, cities are weak in the corners. Only one tower covers it and without it the way inside is clear. With six hellcannons, the chaos dwarfs can conveniently blast their way into even huge stone walls with cannon towers. The trick here is to destroy the walls to open gaps into which you can fire at the defenders, while the enemy missile troops (who always want to be on a wall) are forced away out of range by shots at the wall section they stand on. Here is where the blunderbuss firepower shines more brightly than ever. The primary reason to attack a corner is to be able to fire raking shots at the enemy infantry facing the other side and not the ones standing closest. This way you will hit many more enemies since the blunderbuss shot spread out in depth. As one enemy infantry company is destroyed, another will typically march to take its place. That way you can massacre an entire garrison’s infantry and only have the fragile missile troops left to contend with once inside the walls. Sometimes it does not work, but if you attack the city the next round you can frequently see the enemy being much more eager to defend the wall gaps.

Here is a picture from the siege of the amply garrisoned Hergig, I think. One gap for each blunderbuss company. Notice the huge piles of corpses on the street along with the vast amount of ammunition as well as time left for my dwarfs. Raking fire at its finest (or worst, depending on which side you are on). Fear the Chaos Dwarfs!

[Timorfeys]

Mercenary antypathy\sympathy table
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzQM...lhd2lMeTQ/edit
Red-antypathy
Green-sympathy
White-neytral

[Robert Nesta Marley]

hello to all
awesome guide I was helpful with sylvania in v1.5.1 !!
a question please, you could make a guide on the Dwarves of Choas ??
Thanks in advance

[Robert Nesta Marley]

hello to all
awesome guide I was helpful with sylvania in v1.5.1 !!
a question please, you could make a guide on the Dwarves of Choas ??
Thanks in advance

oh lol ,already there
I have not noticed

[Boomshire]

Thanks for these!